WORDS THAT BREATHE

A prayer for grandparents-to-be, offered while waiting for news of a birth: strength for the parents, a safe arrival for the baby, and joy in the next message.

A blessing for rabbis, cantors, educators, and every Jewish professional and volunteer who carried their community through the High Holy Days.

A pre-Yom Kippur prayer by Rabbi Paul Kipnes for the volunteers, staff, clergy, and teams who carry a congregation through the High Holy Days.

A Rosh Hashanah Eve sermon on whether prayer still matters — told through Hannah, an elderly woman in Kyiv who never stopped praying for the world.

A blessing for rabbis, cantors, educators, and every synagogue professional and volunteer who carries their community into the High Holy Days of 5787.

A prayer for anyone awaiting further medical tests — for calm, strength, and a sense of God's steady presence through this unsettling, uncertain wait.

A prayer written for a friend fighting cancer, offered here for anyone walking that same fight. Holy One of Healing, I’ve got this. Because I know You’ve got me. Draw near now, steady my spirit, strengthen me for what lies ahead. Cancer may have entered my body, but it does not get to claim my spirit. I am more than this diagnosis, more than my fear. I am fierce. I am fighting. I am here. When I feel strong, let me seize that strength. When fear finds me, hold me. Fill me wit

I wrote this the day she buried her mother, trying to hold prayer and grief together as she recited the first Kaddish for her.

A heartfelt prayer for those caring for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s, offering words of compassion, strength, and hope. It asks for patience in the face of loss, love that endures beyond memory, and the grace to cherish what remains.